Nobel Prize for Literature

“Had the committee for the Nobel Prize decided at an earlier date than 1988 that recognition should be given to the renaissance that was occurring in modern Arabic literature, the prize would surely have been awarded to Tawfiq al-Hakim.”

The winner of the 2014 Nobel Prize for Literature will be revealed this Thursday. There’s no way of knowing who is on the Swedish Academy’s shortlist — at least not until the archives are opened up fifty years from now — but we do know who’s on the betting rolls.

I learn all sorts of interesting things from Michael Orthofer over at The Literary Saloon; for instance, that at the beginning of each year, the Nobel Prize folks open up their archives from 50 years ago. That means it will… Read More ›

Chinese novelist Mo Yan, who today received the Nobel Prize for Literature, previously spoke with Granta magazine about state and self-censorship. He said: Many approaches to literature have political bearings, for example in our real life there might be some… Read More ›

It’s Nobel Day, which means that, around the world, curiosity-seekers such as myself will be glued to their computers at 1 p.m. CET. With “Arab Spring” chatter in the air, it becomes perhaps more likely but certainly less pleasant to… Read More ›

It’s nearly October, the time for burning rice chaff, eating candy, and speculating about the various Nobel prizes. Literature Prize Adonis. Up until January 28, I believed Adonis had a good shot at this year’s Nobel Prize for Literature. Khaled… Read More ›

To Arab readers Mahfouz does in fact have a distinctive voice, which displays a remarkable mastery of language yet does not call attention to itself. But in English he sounds like each of his translators, most of whom (with one or two exceptions) are not stylists and, I am sorry to say, appear not to have completely understood what he is really about.